Firefly Music Festival 2015

As always, Firefly was a full of great memories, great music and great friends. It was the first year that the festival sold out with 90,000 tickets! Below you’ll find some of my most memorable moments (the good and the bad) from Firefly 2015:

The Woodlands evacuated…

Thanks to mother nature, the festival closed down Saturday night with the expectation of 60mph winds and heavy rain. The morning before the rain, Firefly sent out a notification letting us know that they changed up the nighttime schedule due to the forecast so that some of the major acts played earlier.

The hubs and I were hanging out in some comfy chairs listening to the show when Kid Cudi stopped everything to tell us to evacuate. Sublime was also playing at the same time and apparently they were pissed about having to stop. Sooo, about 90,000 people tried to leave the Woodlands at the same time causing a huge traffic jam. But, in true festival style, no one really seemed too pissed off and we all started singing random songs like Just a Friend and the na-na’s from Hey Jude. Some guys were funny and started moo-ing because we looked (and felt) like a giant herd of cattle.

Other than Kid Cudi and Sublime being cut short, Kings of Leon, The Chainsmokers and Steve Aoki were also canceled. The Chainsmokers were super cool and tried to drive their van into the premiere camping area to put on a show but security shut that down.

Firefly did reschedule Steve Aoki for 2:30pm and the Chainsmokers for 11pm the next day but everyone still missed out on Kings of Leon. Also, I couldn’t imagine dancing like a fool to Steve Aoki in the middle of the day, but maybe that’s just me.

The Mud…

Even before the storm that hit on Saturday, the Woodlands were a complete mud bowl. Firefly did try to put some mulch down and clear the mud away after the first day but it was still BAD. I was lucky enough to have packed a pair of combat boots and rainboots but sooo many people were in sandals that got sucked into the mud as they were walking. I didn’t mind the mud so much except that it made it difficult to find somewhere to put our blanket down when we wanted to relax. But, it makes for an interesting story and I can’t imagine that the conditions at Firefly could get any worse so I don’t have to be scared about hating my life due to the weather going forward.

Hozier…

The act I was most excited to see. I showed up at the stage alone over an hour before his set started with rainboots on my feet and a bottle of ice water in hand to deal with the 90+ degree weather. As I made my way toward the stage it became clear that not only did the rain from the night before turn the ground into a mud pit, it left a giant 3in deep mud puddle that anyone close to the stage had to stand in. Boy did I feel bad for everyone in sandals.

It was so hot that I finished off my water within about 20min and relied on my little portable fan to keep from over-heating. BUT then the AMAZING security guys would come around every 5min or so to spray us with ice cold water and a giant bag of ice for us to share.

Hozier was great of course. He sounded amazing live and was super chill on stage. And he covered Ariana Grande’s song, One Less Problem, so basicaly my life was complete!

Our Neighbors…

The thing I love most about Firefly, and I’m sure this is true at most festivals, is the people. You get thrown into this huge camping mess with random neighbors and regardless of who they are or where they are from you have something HUGE in common and that makes for great friendships.

Last year, our neighbors on both sides were AMAZING. And this year despite them not being quite as good (one side was great, the other not so much), there were some interesting dynamics going on that I’ll never forget. In the “good” neighbor’s group there was a guy who wore a tank top that said, “I’m not a princess, I’m a Khalessi.” Awesome shirt, yes? Well, this guy also became the big brother to the “not so good” neighbors, a bunch of frat bros. He would give them alcohol, play games, hang out and give suggestions on who to see and how to handle the festival experience…and all weekend the frat bros called him their Khalessi. It was so funny because they actually looked up to him.

Paul McCartney’s Birthday & Fireworks…

Yup, Sir Paul McCartney headlined and gave us an amazing 2.5 hour show. The day before was his 73rd birthday so he started out with the 1968 Beatles song, Birthday. He had a full out fireworks show during Live and Let Die, stopped the show so that everyone could sing the na-na’s from Hey Jude a bunch of times and was a really humble performer.

There’s really not much to say other than it was amazing and 2.5 hours was not nearly enough for all the Beatles songs we would have loved to hear.

Snoop Dogg…

Ohhhh, Snoop Dogg. I had this dilemma where Snoop Dogg and Tove Lo were playing at the same time on Sunday and I COULD NOT decide who to see. I ended up choosing Snoop and I’m so glad I did. (Especially because Tove Lo is coming to DC in October!)

Two crazy things happened at the Snoop Dogg show. First, Snoop stopped the show to talk to a guy in the crowd who was holding up a sign that said “Snoop, smoke my blunt!” with a plastic baggie stapled to the sign holding a giant blunt. Snoop proceeded to take the blunt, light it on stage and says, “Woooweee, that’s some good shit”. He then proceed to invite the guy and his friends back stage after the shows and stops like 4 more time to take a break and smoke the blunt. It was HILARIOUS.

Second, some dude got it in his head to climb the speaker in the middle of the field and have a dance party. No one could get him down and he was there for a good 5/10 minutes.

So many memories made this year but what will I remember most? Mud and music. I’ll call it a win.